By The newspaper
May 1, 2024, 12:34 PM EDT
Tonya Hollingsworth is an endless victim of gun violence in New York: her father, her brother and now her son have been shot dead, leaving three generations of mourning for her family.
Last week his son Byron Hollingsworth, 26, was killed in broad daylight in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The young man had the same name as his uncle, whom he did not know because he had been murdered in 1995 in a dispute over a woman. Previously, Tonya’s father was shot to death while working as a taxi driver in 1979, when she was a child.
I cry every day. I can not believe it. “I’m just in shock.”
The feeling was all too familiar to Tonya when police knocked on her door last week saying her son had been shot to death. “As soon as I saw three detectives I knew something had happened… I just fell to the ground and threw my phone,” Tonya told the DailyNews. “I cry every day. I can not believe it. “I’m just in shock…I’m trying to be strong for him.”
Byron was shot in the neck and stomach on Rogers Ave. near Park Place around 4:05 pm on April 23. He was rushed to Kings County Hospital, but could not be saved.
That last homicide in the family happened one day after what would have been the birthday of the ill-fated uncle of the same name. “They killed my son the day after my brother’s birthday,” stressed the hurt mother.
Furthermore, as if it were an omen, the young man had recently been asking his mother about his uncle’s death. “He said, ‘Mom, do you think what happened to Uncle Byron is going to happen to me?’ I said, ‘No.'”
The motive for the crime is unclear, but the young man was scheduled to appear in court on May 8 for two open cases: an arrest for weapons possession on March 8 and another for a forged instrument eleven days later, public records show.
No arrests have been made or suspects identified. Anyone with information should call 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) and in Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Also through the website crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or by text message to 274637 (CRIMES), followed by TIP577. All communications are strictly confidential.
On Monday of this week, two men died in shootings in the Bronx and Queens. Previously, on Saturday, a 24-year-old young man was shot and killed behind the wheel by a passenger inside a luxury BMW car in Brooklyn (NYC). Police arrested two suspects. It was the 3rd homicide in April within the confines of Precinct 67.
Although gun violence is constant in NYC, according to police as of mid-April, homicides throughout the city had decreased more than 18% this year compared to the same period in 2023.